Morales, Duffy lead Royals over Phillies 6-2

Kansas City Royals’ Alex Gordon, center, is greeted at the plate by Whit Merrifield, left, and Drew Butera, right, after hitting a two-run homer during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sunday, July 3, 2016 in Philadelphia. Following that Morales homer with two outs in the second, he’d retire 10 straight batters before bidding adieu after 95 pitches over five innings. In his return, Velasquez, who was acquired in December from the Houston Astros in a package in return for closer Ken Giles, silenced the Diamondbacks by giving up just five hits and striking out seven over five shutout innings in an 8-0 Philadelphia victory.

Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. The first one came in the first inning, when Peter Bourjos tripled and Maikel Franco singled him home.

First pitch is set for 4:50 p.m. Eastern.

Duffy’s pitching heroics snuffed out the Phils’ modest four-game win streak, and evened up this three-game weekend series at a game apiece. That’s good for a. 565 average during that span. For the season, Morales is now hitting. He looked better during the final three innings of Saturday’s start against the Royals, retiring the last 10 batters he faced. The play was ruled a hit and RBI with no error charged to Duffy.In the second, Duffy had his first major-league hit, a bunt that went over the head of Nola.

Phillies SS Freddy Galvis was not in the lineup because of what manager Pete Mackanin called “groin tightness.”…

It was the third straight game with a homer for Morales, who extended his hitting streak to eight consecutive games by going deep in the second inning.

“Pitch selection is key”, Morales said.

Nola knows he won’t likely be part of the discussion about what is the best course of action for him, so he weighed in on the issue right away.

Matt Holliday drove in three runs, left-hander Jaime Garcia threw eight solid innings and the Cardinals beat the Brewers.

The 27-year-old Duffy recorded the first two outs of the ninth but was lifted for Joakim Soria after Cesar Hernandez’s RBI single. He was 0-9 in his previous 15 starts against AL opponents. Duffy lobbied manager Ned Yost after the eighth inning to stay in the contest. “He gave us an opportunity to try to tie the game”.

Duffy, meanwhile, made 16 appearances out of the bullpen before joining the Kansas City rotation in mid-May.

The Royals fell to 43-38 with their 13th loss in their last 18 road games. “I thought I had pretty good stuff today”. “Luckily I’m playing in a park that is conducive to home runs”.